Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy President, hon members, comrades and friends, let me take this opportunity to thank this House for giving me the chance to speak in the debate on the Adjustments Appropriation Bill for 2012-13. I will make particular reference to certain points. I must say, at the outset, that as the ANC we support the adjustments made to the 2012-13 Budget and encourage the department to effectively use funds to deliver services to the people. After all, the Budget is not about funds, or about numbers, but about the people.
Having said that, I would like to draw the attention of the House to the following key areas that need improvement in order for there to be better budgeting and service delivery. The first area is shifts and virements. The ANC supports the need for flexibility in the budget process in order to keep up with changes in the projects, targets and indicators of the departments. However, it is the ANC's observation and view that certain shifts and virements made by the departments are as a result of a lack of planning. There will be shifting but when done at the last moment, it creates a lot of confusion, especially when it comes to the Public Finance Management Act. There are also shifts that are said to be due to incorrect classifications of budget items, and this is an issue of planning again. It is even more concerning when budgets are shifted away from infrastructure- and job-creating projects in the departments.
It is further noted that what is declared as savings actually emanates from underspending and, because of that, it is a serious concern. This underspending results in no jobs being created, infrastructure taking a long time to be created, and the interchangeable use of savings and underspending, which is in the Public Finance Management Act, creates undue confusion, and this could potentially encourage unsatisfactory spending and performance by the departments.
So, the departments do that, because they can shift, or they can take the money and not use it or shift it from one area to another. In terms of that, again it will be called savings, and how do you save if you are underspending? We need to have a clear distinction regarding that.
The other concern is about the filling of vacant positions. There is a budget for vacant positions, but during the year we do not fill those positions, and again we shift the money. This is serious cause for concern, and it impacts negatively on service delivery to the people. Secondly, it negatively affects the quality and reliability of the departments' budget and planning. Thirdly, it hinders progress on the government's top priority of job creation and the filling of vacant positions across government.
Now, there is a gap between expenditure and performance outcomes. That gap is widening a lot about the expenditure outcomes and the achievement performance targets of the departments at the end of the financial year. It is our duty, as the ANC, to see that this gap is narrowed and to make sure that it doesn't happen again. We need to make sure that there is a co- ordinated and meaningful integration of all plans which are linked to the abovementioned activities.
As part of the recommendations, we said that the critical posts such as that of chief financial officer are filled with immediate effect. All the departments must ensure that all funded vacant posts are filled because that is creating a lot of challenges, and that is why people will be standing up and accusing us of mismanagement, of what the DA is saying, because those things are not happening. Originally, what is budgeted for should be used for that, and there must be a clear distinction between savings and underspending. Maybe I do not know the English, but I believe if you had R10 and used R8, then you would have saved R2. However, if I did not use the money and called that savings, it is a serious challenge. We need to relook at that and ensure that there is a clear distinction.
Each department should stick to its core functions. If my role is to build roads, I must build roads. If my role is to educate, I must educate. If my role is in health, then I must deal with health issues, so that we can know that if my role is in education and I want to build schools, it becomes a challenge. However, if we leave it to the Department of Public Works - that is the example that I am making - and say as the Department of Basic Education that we need to have five schools, they must build those five schools. It is not the Department of Basic Education's core function. So those are some of the examples that I am making to say let us do that. We also have slow spending. Maybe in terms of our budget, it must go according to the plan and the implementation plan so that we cannot be slow in spending. Before I close, Chairperson, I just want to challenge the DA and say that it is very funny that they sit in committees and debate but when they come here, they tell a different story. Maybe we pay them for mahala. [Interjections.] They must go, because they cannot take a decision in the committee and then afterwards come to the House and deny that they were part of the decision. That can never be correct. So if they were not part of the decisions in committees, they should not come here and stand up. They must just go, because they get money for mahala. They don't know what their role is. [Interjections.]